Amazon, the online shopping service, has refused to confirm speculation it will roll out its US gourmet foods service.
The US site has signed up “several hundred” new merchants since launching a year ago. And Jonathan Hartnell-Beavis, chief operating officer of UK home shopping service Food Ferry, told Just-food.com he thought the UK would follow suit.
“They are supplying the infrastructure and taking a commission on each and every sale. It is a smooth process that’s clever,” he said.
Just-food asked Amazon for confirmation of plans to roll out the service to the Canadian, Japanese and European sites but the company said it never commented on what it might do in the future.
However, Marie Fagan, spokeswoman for the UK, remarked on similarities between the UK and US site and that “historically we have some things that .com has introduced”.

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By GlobalDataAmazon’s US site offers tens of thousands of products delivered within 24 hours by the featured merchants.
Molly Ingle, a spokeswoman for the US, said: “This is a win-win for merchant and customers. Small businesses from across the world now have the opportunity to reach millions of customers. And customers now have access to hard-to-find gourmet foods and regional specialities all in one place.”